One of my favourite Christmas carols is “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” I have always enjoyed it, but last year, something happened that strengthened its place in my heart. Last Christmas, my church put on a community Christmas dinner. As part of the program, of course, we sang some Christmas carols. As you would expect, it was a lovely time. We all sat around our tables after dinner, singing these familiar hymns about Jesus.
As we sang, one of my daughters, who was just shy of three years old at the time, came and snuggled up on my lap. Having young kids always makes singing at church a bit of an interesting experience.
My kids love music and are actively learning lots of songs about Jesus. But in old songs, there are lots of unfamiliar words. And little kids can’t read, so often, they can’t sing along. So, as I said, singing at church with young kids can be an interesting experience. But on this particular evening, my daughter was just snuggling with me and quietly listening to the singing. It was a really sweet experience.
I’ll never forget sitting there, with my sweet daughter on my lap, singing the words of the second verse of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”:
veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
hail th’incarnate Deity,
pleased as man with man to dwell,
Jesus, our Immanuel.
These words, so rich in theology, washed over me as I considered the one who created the heavens and the earth, the one who sustains all things by the power of his word (Hebrews 1:2-3), entering into his creation; the one who fills the whole universe (Ephesians 4:10), growing in the womb of Mary; the one who is eternal and unchanging (Hebrews 1:12) growing and learning (Luke 2:52, Hebrews 5:7-8); the one who has life himself (John 5:26) being born and dying for us.
What a glorious truth. How can our minds even scratch the surface of what this means?
But I didn’t get far into my revelry before I was interrupted. We had come to the chorus:
Hark! The herald angels sing
Glory to the newborn King!
I’m not sure how much of the song my daughter had been actually listening to before that point, but those words made it into her head because she looked up at me with excited eyes and said, “Daddy! The newborn King! That’s talking about Jesus!”
My prayer is that one day my kids, my church, and all the people who came to that community dinner begin to see the depth of the glorious theology of the incarnation.
But in the meantime, there’s simplicity in the message of Christmas as well. Jesus was born as the King. We sing to him and worship him at Christmas because he reigns over us. And so there is a call on our lives to turn to him and submit to his reign. Our God became human to save us from our sins. And after having done that, “he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven” (Hebrews 1:3). And one day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:10-11). Glory to the newborn King!
